The Udder Milk Fiasco: How Food Rights Take a Hit When Minorities and Immigrants Are Scapegoats

Running a raw milk food club is tough enough under the best of circumstances, because you’re always in a gray area of the law. Well, just try running a raw milk food club if you’re in another gray area of the law—you’re a Muslim immigrant.

Trying to fight back in that situation is like trying to fight the raw milk battles with one hand tied behind your back….while standing on one foot. It’s nearly impossible.

Once you appreciate the difficulties, you’ll understand the problems confronting Udder Milk, a raw milk distributor based in New York state that describes itself both as “a co-op” and a “private membership association.”

It seems to have operated over the last dozen years pretty much without drawing the attention of regulators, delivering raw milk and other raw dairy products to food club members in the New York City metropolitan area, including New Jersey. Its members have been happy with the products and the delivery arrangements, even posting reviews on Yelp.

Last fall, it suddenly began drawing a huge amount of public attention when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control began warning people away from Udder Milk, allegedly because a New Jersey woman had become ill with antibiotic-resistant brucella.

These warnings turned into near hysteria when the CDC advised all Udder Milk members to seek out medical treatment, including antibiotic treatment; Food Safety News, for one, ran any number of articles picking up on warnings.

Then, in December, the Udder Milk hysteria seemed to suddenly dissipate when Pennsylvania public health officials issued an advisory to raw milk producers suggesting that a brucella vaccine could well have been the source of the illness of the NJ woman, along with a brucella case in Texas.

The news out of Pennsylvania might have reassured raw milk producers and food club operators, but it didn’t dissuade New York officials from coming down hard on Udder Milk. Early this year, there was a legal action by the NY Department of Agriculture and Markets that resulted in Udder Milk being fined $3,000 for illegal distribution. There was a related legal action in which NY Ag and Markets demanded the names of all farmers supplying Udder Milk and all members of its co-op. Udder Milk paid the fine, but refused to supply the names of either farmers or members. NY Ag and Markets continued to push its demands in court.

In the spring, Udder Milk launched a GoFundMe campaign that netted it $8,421 of its $11,000 goal, to help pay legal fees for the ongoing case.

However, throughout this entire smear and enforcement campaign, Udder Milk has refused public comment to any media, including to this blog. Why would its owners hesitate, when publicity would most likely encourage its raw milk drinkers to protest to their legislators and/or to regulators? Legislators and regulators hate that kind of protest, since it comes from law-abiding citizens pissed off that they are being thwarted from the most basic of human functions: obtaining wholesome local foods of their choice.

The reason Udder Milk’s owners hesitated is simple, and disturbing. Its owners are Muslims. Our president hasn’t exactly been cordial to Muslims, demanding even before he was elected that Muslims be banned from entering the U.S. He continued pursuing his objections to Muslims in court cases, which wound up with the U.S. Supreme Court backing him on being able to restrict emigration from specific Muslim countries.

I had been in touch with the Udder Milk owners and lawyer, and had encouraged them to go public. But they resisted, until now.

A lawyer for Udder Milk says he would love to countersue NY Ag and Markets, seeking evidence about the woman who allegedly became ill from brucella. “We want a deposition of that person. We want phone calls and faxes of what was going on with her.”

He would also like to challenge the state’s targeting of Udder Milk on a pure food rights basis. “We have a right to bear arms, but we don’e have a right to feed ourselves?”

The problem he anticipates with a big public challenge to NY Ag and Markets? Udder Milk’s owners “are Muslim. They are the perfect culprits…These are exactly the people (the administration) is looking for. They are driving around with headscarves and selling milk. The credible people are losing.”

So it’s taken me months to finally convince the Udder Milk owners to go public. And even so, they don’t want their names or their lawyer’s name used. They remain terrified, based on the mounting pressure against immigrants and Muslims (and other minorities) in the U.S.

If you were born in the U.S. and are a citizen, you probably can’t imagine the terror that even naturalized citizens and immigrants with green cards are feeling in today’s U.S. Just a few weeks ago, the Trump administration launched a formal effort to revoke citizenship from those who are determined to have “lied” to obtain citizenship. Failed to report a traffic violation? It could cost you your naturalization citizenship.

In the meantime, the screws are tightening on Udder Milk to provide names of farmers they obtain milk from and individual names and contact info of their food club members, even though the New Jersey brucella illness clearly wasn’t a function of something it did wrong in handling milk.

This case bears a striking resemblance to that of raw milk distributor Max Kane nearly ten years earlier. He was quick to defend himself aggressively, and not hide in corner like the owners of Udder Milk, after Wisconsin authorities demanded he provide the names of farmers supplying raw milk for his distribution service. And while he lost his case, he felt free to mobilize support without worrying about being deported or otherwise attacked on grounds aside from the legal case at hand.It’s a different time.

A key means for fighting back against endless encroachments on food rights is to use the courts and the legislatures to keep the regulators from overstepping their boundaries. The rule of law. We won’t get help from a tyrannical dictator whom we hope will show us some measure of mercy.

A number of readers have taken me to task for seeming to abandon the problems associated with raw milk regulation and food rights, in favor of partisan politics..

I’ve had difficulty explaining how raw milk regulation intersects with partisan politics…until now. I think the problems over the last year of Udder Milk illustrate more starkly than I could ever explain howthe politics of food can’t ever be assessed in isolation from the politics of the rest of life.

The bottom line: We can’t all be free as long as some of us are official scapegoats for hate-filled politicians. It just can’t be done.

45 Comments

To show an avatar with your comment, go to Gravatar and attach your picture to your email!

J

Joe C.
on August 6, 2018 at 8:07 am

My wife is a legal minority immigrant who is a naturalized US citizen. She doesn’t have fears about her US Citizenship being revoked nor our family being separated. As a matter of fact, she supports what Trump is doing with dealing with ILLEGAL and CRIMINAL immigrants. I’ve spoken with a number of other minority immigrants who support Trump’s immigration policies as well.

That is wonderful, Joe C., that she has no fears about losing her citizenship. I notice that you don’t use your full name. Would you be willing to provide that here, along with the full name of your wife? And then, would you and she be willing to sign a petition, giving your full names and addresses, demanding that the New York government stop its harassment of the owners of Udder Milk? If you’re willing to do all that, how about putting your names on a lawsuit against the New York authorities, on behalf of Udder Milk? (Legal fees would be handled by others.) Let us know.

I frankly don’t know anyone in the small dairy business, black, white, green, yellow, brown or red, who is trying to eek out a living with raw dairy products, that would not have to seriously mull over whether they would want to put their name out there as a dissident against the FDA or other local authorities for fear of the gestapo taking it out on them politically.

Get real. One does not have to be a Muslim to worry about the FDA or other local authorities kicking in your door for possessing raw milk.

Please get off of this hysteria regarding race. Joe C laid it out for you and you come back with a smart ass response. GEEZ.

“Identity politics”? I think what I posted was a report on what was happening to the people at Udder Milk. I expressed my opinion about it at the end. But the fears about being singled out as Muslims is their fear. I had to talk them in to allowing even this limited post, without names.

They have mulled the situation and made a strategic decision that they would face more than the usual hassle associated with going public, because of the current political and enforcement climate for Muslims.

But for the record, many dairy owners have had the courage to go public and challenge the authorities, in court or via civil disobedience. Here is just a very partial list:

Plus thousands of others who have shown up at public rallies and demonstrations and signed petitions and letters to regulators, protesting abridgments of food rights.

However, as brave as these people were, none that I am aware of had to worry about being deported or losing their citizenship because of their religion or ethnicity as a penalty for going public in asserting their food rights. That is a very recent shift in our political dynamic.

As for my response to Joe C., he said his wife wasn’t afraid of losing her naturalized citizenship, suggesting that the Udder Milk owners were being overly fearful. So I challenged him to do what he was criticizing them for–put his money where his mouth is. Let’s see if he does.

David: Let’s face it: Our government, like most, operates as an organized criminal enterprise, and the “public health system” is particularly corrupt, a fully captured marketing arm of the pharmaceutical, food, agricultural, and chemical industries. Trump’s public remarks about Muslims are wrong-headed, hurtful, and show colossal ignorance, but there is a reason we have Trump, and that is that Americans are fed up with the criminal political class, with their complicit media, parrot-like pundits and “experts”, and endless wars. The Italians overthrew their government over the Obama/GSK vaccine mandates, but our system does not allow for shooting the horse in the middle of the stream. You would rather have had the Clintons, as big a crime family as the Bushes? How many Yemeni Muslims did Obama murder with his drones and refueling of Saudi bombers? In a war solely for the Saudis to control the huge, and, as yet undeveloped, Yemini oil reserves. A cruel irony that the House of Saud, Muslims to the last man, woman, and child, are one of Trump’s new best friends. We all offer moral support to the good people of Udder, victims of the perfidy and stupidity of a government gone terribly wrong. No, we no longer have a representative democracy. Remember what they did to Bernie? I was a Bernie voter who switched to Trump, who appalls me at times, but no more so than the phony Democrats do.

Gary, your points about the influence of Big Pharma on public health are well taken. Certain areas of federal government are under corporate control to a significant extent (like national defense). If you go to state and, especially local governments, things are often much more representative. New England town meetings are a joy to observe. As you suggest, there is something to be said for having the Italian (and other European countries) parliamentary form of government, which allows for more frequent changes of government based on no-confidence votes by the legislative arm. Discourages overly erratic decision making by the executive (prime minister), for fear of being ousted before his/her term up.

We still do have a representative democracy to some degree. It’s certainly eroded under the influence of rich individuals and corporations. But I guarantee you, once it’s gone, and we have a dictator in charge, you’ll know the difference.

Gordon S. Watson:
republic: a state or nation in which the supreme power rests in all the citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives elected, directly or indirectly, by them and responsible to them.
representative government: of, characterized by, or based on representation of the people by elected delegates.
democracy: government by the people, either directly or through elected representatives; rule by the ruled.
Essentially synonymous.
Relevant sections of the Constitution, the only founding document which has the force of law: The very beginning. Article 1, mainly sections 1 through 6. The rest of article 1 concerns congressional mandates and limitations on state powers.
We once did have a republic, or representative democracy. This is no longer the case. We have corporate socialism and a corporate plutocracy. Washington, D.C. is a completely corrupt slimy swamp. Listen to the recent Bill Binney interview, if you can find it (it runs about an hour). He’s one of the good guys.

we have been around for over 12 years never had a ‘muslim” problem …even a webcite for 10 years.homeland security visited us once 10 years ago…5 guys came to the house..i think they were more scared then we were …i let them in. they were looking at all the books i read(i know why) then i took them to my car …yes my car…. i was working out of a car then …the really tall handsome italian guy said he liked cheese so i asked him what kind …i opened up my trunk ….not to pull out an a.k.47 but a pound of cheddar cheese.I then told him we are trying to un-poison the people by bringing them healthier food.dont think its because we are muslim dont think this irish /welsh/italian girl ,born in america,whos familly before worked wiuth some of the presidents,who happens to be a convert muslim is giving america a problem..its happening to all especially the amish they are christian and beautiful people.i allways wanted to meet them my whole life not just for business .its ironic now how i got so close to them and im now in a different religion .they are beautiful people and we have many commanlities in with them as well .
But david could be seeing something none of us are seeing so he could be right.
drink your raw grass fed guernsey milk
that will make you happy
and free
and thanx david for making me feel brave a bit
i listen to k-love because they sings songs about god in english it gives me strength..i will not stop brining this milk to the people because they need it for their health.if i stop that is a crime !!!!

David, guess that kinda messes up Watson’s theory “only white people” drink raw milk, LOL!! Don’t bother commenting either Watson, I just usually skip your posts, they are very redundant. Thanks David for this new story.

I’m so sad to hear that. I used to buy from them years ago and they are such nice, nice people. The driver comes from the same country my family did; we are Jewish and they are Muslim.

Udder Milk people, if you are reading this may G-d bless you with success, give you strength and keep you safe and our thoughts are with you.

And we are really worried because my husband, who did not lie, is a naturalized citizen and it’s scary. Applying for citizenship involves so much paperwork it’s impossible to not make a mistake. I am worried every day that he will get arrested because he has an accent and citizens don’t carry proof of citizenship like greencard holders carry their card, or that some mistake will be found on the application that we didn’t know about. I was born in the USA and I am scared because I look like a foreigner. My neighbors vandalized my property and lit it on fire right after the election and someone left a noose by my front door. With a Trump Pence election sign so there would be no misunderstanding.

Sapir,
I am sorry you have had to endure such negativity from folks here.It seems to be P.C. to be full of hatred and anger towards folks that don’t fit the model of what I call Neo-Americans. The pendulum of politics changes regularly here in the USA and it will change, always has. Too bad folks have to take out their frustrations with our political leaders on other folks that are just trying to be good citizens, just a shame!!

I have to agree with Gary and Joe. I think you are reaching far beyond any logical link. I ran a raw milk club when I lived in NY, and yes, we were paranoid, but only because NYAg&Mkts was so aggressively pursuing any lead on raw milk (2007-2009). I cannot say that I embrace President Trump, but I cannot say that I regret NOT voting for a continuation of Obama’s and Hillary’s foreign policy (let alone domestic policy- surely you recall Obama installing Tom Vilsack as head of USDA) what do you think has done more damage to clean agriculture than that? I work with many Muslims who are engaged in a signifant effort to reduce Islamophobia in the US, and I can’t say that they are feeling such fear.

I’m afraid that the association between American’s food freedom and immigrants is quite bizarre. Most Americans don’t know that we are being subject to an immigrant invasion. Most do not study history. The Muslim’s are the worst, but far from the only people being flooded into North America by design (as the ruling elite have done in Europe). Americans had better wake up soon, that certain people (they own the press) are promoting and financing this flood in order to destroy our culture. So David you are mortified that these Muslims are afraid to speak out? Whaaaaaa booooooooo.

“DESTROY OUR CULTURE”john by the looks of it your last name it speaks of you being either irish or scottish decent.if one is really strong in their culture then no matter where they live they still have it….. they never loose it.Like when my nona came here she spoke italian to my mom…my mom never lost it…i did some ,but i can still speak to my grandkids.can youspeak gaelic?
or was it lost ?? in america we come from all over the world many nations through the generations many families loose thier culture ….i have spoken to some people they are nice but when i ask them from what country your grandmother was from they cant answer it. Thats really scaryits not cause there are too many muslims here its cause they done care….they cant even utter a few words from their ancestral language.thats sad.our culture is a “pop Culture” .Unless you are careful you loose all history of whom you are from..MANY DO ….MANY.they cant even cook something in the kitchen thats from their ethnic heritage…. from their grandmother..they order it out.Its how strong you are in your own familly john to keep your own culture alive.I cannot speak gaelic but i can speak italian
and i teach this to my grandkids.I use to also blame another race for my own culture not excisting anymore.I cannot ..i see the amish how strong they are in their culture .did they loose anything …..NO. im not yelling at you only seeing myself in you as i once thought like you.And im glad i dont anymore

“…many people living in the West are dissatisfied with their own society. They despise it or accuse it of not being up to the level of maturity attained by mankind. A number of such critics turn to socialism, which is a false and dangerous current.

‘I hope that no one present will suspect me of offering my personal criticism of the Western system to present socialism as an alternative. Having experienced applied socialism in a country where the alternative has been realized, I certainly will not speak for it. The well-known Soviet mathematician Shafarevich, a member of the Soviet Academy of Science, has written a brilliant book under the title Socialism; it is a profound analysis showing that socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind into death.”

Ken: Thanks. Words worth heeding. Individual initiative, individual rights, the free spread of knowledge, and the treating of all others, and every living being (except flies in the house and pests on the crops) and inanimate object on Earth with dignity and respect is what will encourage health, productivity, and creativity. Ending monopoly cronyism, and putting the perpetrators in jail wouldn’t hurt, either. David we’ll keep. He’s one of the good guys.

Ken,
A very profound speech. However, it seems Solzhenitsyn was no more effective at changing the course of our society than the prophets in times of the Old Testament.

I think socialism has become so woven into our society today that most are unaware of how socialist the western world has become. The consequences of capitalism can be harsh; the mechanisms of socialism seem to provide a softer landing, at least in a short time frame.

What do you see as a non-socialist method for curing the ills of the dairy industry today? Many health advocates today such as Raymond Francis say that no one should consume any dairy. Is it falling demand for the product or aggregation into Big Dairy that is behind what Mark McAfee paints as the sorry state of dairy farmers today?

Our latest Farmers over Pharmacies You Tube video. Please,share widely. This is exactly why pasteurized milk has failed ( or is failing both consumers and its dairymen ) and plant based milk alternatives are on the rise. Pasteurized milk is super allergenic.

Our great grand parents would be very confused to think that RAWMILK was considered an alternative product. It was and always has been the original real deal.

The fact that Monsanto was able to get away with mass marketing this product so long is indicative of the corruption in our political system. The jury decision is a victory for the rule of law, in the face of such corruption.
Keep in mind, though, that this award could be reduced, or even eliminated, on appeal. The wheels of justice grind slowly.

Robert F Kennedy Jr. a member of Johnson’s legal teem states, “They awarded 200 million in punitive damages against Monsanto for acting with malice and oppression”. Yet to paraphrase Judge D. Ebert at Humboldt Provincial Court on March 21, 2005, “Monsanto has a license from the Federal government to allow for the unconfined release of (its products) into the environment.” Indeed, Monsanto is not the only one deserving of blame…

I’m looking forward to the day when vaccine makers and their well-compensated government henchmen are equally held accountable for the damages caused by vaccines.

Ken: Watch Del Bigtree’s Highwire interview with RFK, Jr. concerning the fact that (because of a lawsuit resulting from FOIA stonewalling by the agency) HHS has admitted in writing that for 32 years since the signing of NCVIA, which mandated them to safety test vaccines and report to Congress biennially, they have done absolutely nothing. He says they have some more legal arrows in their quiver. Stay tuned!

In the video below, NVIC president Barbara Loe Fisher states, “Like a schoolyard bully he (Dr. Peter Hotez) slapped the anti vaccine label on parents of vaccine injured children, accusing them of hating their children…” In truth, the anti vaccine movement grows on the backs of those who once believed in vaccines and who have in turn paid the unfortunate price for that belief…https://www.facebook.com/jbhandleyjr/videos/208968393302526/

Tomorrow there is big national dairymen meeting at the Empire State Plaza convention center in Albany NY. Agrimark has helped coordinate the meeting along with NFU and others to come up with solutions to the national dairy crisis.

I am presenting a plan that was developed by CA Farmers Union and California Dairy Campaign directors as our proposal to fix this economically abusuve and chaotic mess.

Yes….once you have been exposed to campy, you are immune for life. That’s what my immunology friend scientists say and that Pubmed says.

Prior to 1972, the Cdc did not consider Campy to be an important human pathogen. After 1972 it was reclassified as a more important threat as more people left the farm and the city dwellers immunity became less familiar with common farm bugs.

“Even if you think the fish oil is coming from Norway or Europe, [the fish] is caught in Central and South America … The fish are then brought onto and thrown into the bottom of the boat …

By the time they get to Europe, the guts are so rancid that in order to get the omega-3s out, they have to go through a process of extracting these poisons and this rancidity. [In the end], you’re left with something that has none of the cofactors [and] it’s been heavily contaminated to clean out the rancidity …”

Joseph: A beautiful thing, indeed! May it drop another 90%. Fitting indeed that the hooligans of Bayer bought this mass-poisoning outfit, since this company was a unit of IG Farben, the German industrial behemoth who developed and manufactured Zyklon B gas used to murder 6 million Europeans, mostly Jews, but as well gays, gypsies, and the disabled, many of them children, some willingly supplied by the Austrian psychiatrist Hans Asperger. May all 5,000 plaintiffs kick ’em in the nuts. On the other hand, our courts are so heavily politicized, it is doubtful justice for the people can bring Bayer to its knees, such is the power and control of the gazillionaires.

As for the notion that > ‘Zyklon B gas was used to murder 6 million Europeans, mostly Jews …” I urge you to < Get the facts ; think for yourself< Gary Ogden. In the 1985 case of HM the Queen versus Ernst Zundel, Barrister Douglas Christie did put to the test everything presented by the other side could muster, published in the book "Extermination of the European Jew" Particularly, the Leuchter Report ought to make you reconsider what you've been led to believe. As a wise old judge once put it "The nature of evidence is that it can be tested ; if it can't be tested, it isn't evidence". A good place to start your de-programming, is : the website of Dr Henry Makow. One of the world's experts on that topic

I sure hope this forum doesn’t go off on a tangent about the “H” word. (c) Since Gary Ogden felt this is an appropriate site to chime-in with a trite piece of outdated “false news”…. it’s worth me emphasizing that people ought to check the facts. A handy example being : the plaque at the gate of Auschwitz was dialed-down from 4 million to 1. Like Isaiah’s Job by Alfred Nock, my task is to speak to the Remnant. Meaning : helping people learn HOW to think, not telling them WHAT to think.
>>> Dr Henry Makow is one of the hardest-working genuine historians, alive. Certainly … of those with an internet presence. Read his stuff for yourself and make up your own mind. He provides evidence such as you’ve never, ever heard in your life. Since he warns and informs people about the religion of the anti-christ, ie. communism, of course he’s called a “white supremicist” by those who hate the Truth. Same with me